


Two Worlds, Both Fantastic

by xanithofdragons



Series: The Dating Misadventures of High School-aged Natori and Matoba [10]
Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Pre-Canon, School Festivals, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-19
Updated: 2017-12-19
Packaged: 2019-02-16 23:16:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13064229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xanithofdragons/pseuds/xanithofdragons
Summary: Seiji visits Shuuichi's school for their annual cultural festival where Shuuichi's class is putting on a play.





	Two Worlds, Both Fantastic

**Author's Note:**

> I was thinking about how Natori might have started acting and got inspired to write this.

Seiji walked the crowded halls of Shuuichi's school, passing by amateurishly made decorations and students trying to entice him to buy food. It was their annual cultural festival, Shuuichi's last, in fact, since he was a third-year now, and Seiji had made time to visit. When he first mentioned wanting to come, though, Shuuichi had objected, seeming uncomfortable with the idea of Seiji visiting his school.

There was an understanding between them to keep the fact that they were dating a secret from people they knew. When they went out on dates, they both knew to choose locations in different towns from where either of them lived or went to school. If it was just knowing that they hung out together, though, Seiji didn't think it should matter that much, but Shuuichi had gotten worked up even when his classmates had started to recognize Seiji as his friend from seeing them meet up after school got out.

In the end, Seiji had silenced Shuuichi's objections when he mentioned that he'd never been to someone else's school festival before. Seiji had left out the fact that he had barely participated in his own schools' cultural festivals over the years. His family expected him to graduate from high school, so he would. Beyond that, whether it was entrance ceremonies, graduations, sports days, or cultural festivals, he didn't much care about the events and milestones other kids his age looked forward to. At least, he hadn't.

Dating Shuuichi, going places with him, experiencing things with him,hearing him talk about his daily life, and telling him about his own had given new meaning to what he had previously seen as mere rites to pass on the way to growing up and being seen as an adult. Up until now, it had been easy enough to position himself in roles that were likely to require the least effort in cultural festivals. Although it was too late for this year, he was starting to think that next year, if he could convince Shuuichi to come to see his school's cultural festival, it might be worth it to put in an effort.

Seiji walked into the school gymnasium, where rows of chairs were set up facing the stage. A mix of students from the school and guests filled most of the seats. Shuuichi's class was putting on a play this year, and the way he told it, his classmates had pressured him into being the leading man. Seiji picked out an unoccupied chair and sat down waiting for the play to start. It was almost time for Shuuichi's class to perform, and Shuuichi was supposed to have time to walk the festival with Seiji after.

The play started with one student narrating the exposition. They were doing a story based on some European fairytale with a princess and prince. If the princess ended up with whomever Shuuichi was playing, Seiji imagined competition for the role must have been fierce. Although Seiji's expectations for the high school production had been low, the players all seemed to be putting their best effort in, and when one of them missed their cue or gave a stilted performance, it was at least amusing.

Then Shuuichi stepped out onto the stage. His classmates had been smarter than expected about one thing. Seiji didn't know much about acting, but Shuuichi was obviously the best in his class at it. The stage lit up when he walked out, and Seiji was engrossed in watching him shine in a way he had never seen him before. He moved and spoke with confidence befitting a heroic prince. Even when he was supposedly doing it reluctantly, Shuuichi was the type to put his all into whatever he did. He wasted his time and energy that way, but Seiji knew by now that was how he was.

The play climaxed, the prince saved the princess, and then the scene ended. The next scene was an epilogue with the prince and princess getting married, and then the play ended as the actors came out and bowed. Seiji was left wanting. As soon as Shuuichi had started to make him genuinely interested in the play, it was over.

Seiji barely remembered to stand up to leave before the next performance started. Shuuichi would need time to change out of his costume first, but Seiji wanted to head to the meet-up spot he had been given. The hallway near the gymnasium was enough on the edges of the areas in use for the festival that there were few people around, and what few were there seemed to be either resting or waiting to meet someone just like he was. Seiji was thinking of how to comment on the play to Shuuichi when he heard his voice from around a corner.

When Seiji peaked around the corner, he saw Shuuichi with a woman who looked like she was in her mid-thirties. The woman was talking at Shuuichi, saying things like “Please at least think about it” and “Please just take my card” and shoving a business card at him. Shuuichi resisted her pleas at first, but in the end he accepted her business card. With one final entreaty for Shuuichi to contact her, the woman left, headed away from where Seiji was hiding. Shuuichi watched her as she walked off. Once she was out of sigh, Seiji came out from behind the corner to greet Shuuichi.

“Who was that?” Seiji tried to peak over Shuuichi's shoulder at the business card he still held in his hand.

“Ah, Seiji.” Shuuichi turned to face him. “She said she was a talent scout from some agency who happened to have a cousin who goes here.”

“So what was she talking with you about?”

Shuuichi sighed. “She told me I could become a big actor. Even said it would be a waste of talent for me to not seriously consider acting.” 

Seiji couldn't think of anything to say to that. It would be a waste of his talent for him not to seriously consider acting? It would be a waste of Shuuichi's talent as an exorcist for him to become an actor. Professional actors and talent scouts belonged to a world which seemed far away and unreal to Seiji. Suddenly Seiji didn't want to tell Shuuichi how cool he had looked while acting.

“There are a lot of scammers who try to use lines like that anyway,” Shuuichi said, but he still shoved the woman's business card in his pocket. “Are you having fun at the festival?”

“Yeah, it's fun.” It had been an interesting experience to visit Shuuichi's, but cultural festivals and other high school events were trivial after all. Seiji was ready to forget about the play and the talent scout. “Hurry up and show me around.”

“Have you seen any of the third-year booths yet?”

“No. I only saw the club booths before the play.”

“Okay, the class next door to mine is doing a cafe that's supposed to be good.” Shuuichi lead the way to the third-year's floor and Seiji walked with him. A couple girls stopped them on their way to get Shuuichi to introduce him to them. Each time it happened Seiji politely introduced himself and Shuuichi made excuses to end the interaction quickly. Seiji couldn't help but notice that the boys from this school tended more to avoid them.

They entered the classroom next to Shuuichi's that was set up as a cafe and sat down at a table. They ordered a drink for each of them and a piece of cake to share. The same student who took their order brought it out to them, and it all turned out to actually be pretty good.

“I heard one of the other classes is doing a haunted house, but...” Shuuichi stared straight at Seiji. “You probably don't think stuff like that is scary, do you?”

Seiji laughed. “No.” Living his whole life dealing with real yokai regularly, imitation ghosts and monsters were a joke.

“Thought so. I don't really, either.” Shuuichi moved on to other topics, asking him about how his classes were going. They were almost like normal high school students doing normal high school things. Seiji felt uneasy, and the conversation lulled. Shuuichi wouldn't be a high school student, normal or otherwise, for much longer. Seiji thought about Shuuichi's future, and his own, but it made him think of the talent scout he had seen talking with Shuuichi earlier.

“Seiji, are you feeling okay?” Shuuichi interrupted his thoughts.

“I wanted to ask your opinion on the cursed well everyone was talking about at the last meeting.” Seiji reached out for a topic that was familiar to him.

It took Shuuichi a moment to adjust to the sudden topic change, but he said, “Don't talk about that here.”

“Aren't you curious about it?” A flash in Shuuichi's eyes told Seiji that yes, he was curious about it. “We could go check it out next weekend.”

“Fine,” Shuuichi agreed and added in a whisper, “Now stop talking about stuff that'll make people think you're weird at my school.”

“Alright, I'm looking forward to it.” Somehow just that promise to meet up and investigate yokai let Seiji relax and enjoy the rest of the festival.


End file.
